About This Issue
By Kathryn Peltier Campbell, Editor
Higher education in the United States is facing a swift
current of change that challenges its traditional pedagogical
and curricular models. As student populations become
increasingly diverse and America faces pressing challenges
at home and abroad, American education must reengineer
itself to capitalize on the multiple strengths that
students bring to campus. Like engineers designing new
turbines to harness the wind’s inherent power,
higher education must invent new models that channel
students’ potential for excellence through excellent
design.
In College Learning for the New Global Century, AAC&U
identified several such designs, known as effective
(or high-impact) educational practices: first-year seminars
and experiences, common intellectual experiences, learning
communities, writing-intensive courses, collaborative
assignments and projects, undergraduate research, opportunities
for diversity/global learning, service learning, internships,
and capstone courses and projects. These practices have
been shown to lead to success for all students, and
particularly for traditionally underserved students.
Drawing on AAC&U’s Making Excellence Inclusive
initiative, this issue of Diversity & Democracy
explores how institutions can use high-impact practices
to reengineer themselves and harness the power of inclusive
excellence for all.
